1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic recording media having discrete tracks, a magnetic recording apparatus having the magnetic recording media, and a stamper used to manufacture the magnetic recording media.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, much attention has been paid to discrete track media in which adjacent recording tracks are separated by grooves or guard bands formed of a nonmagnetic material to reduce the magnetic interference between the adjacent tracks so as to enable a further increase in the recording density of the magnetic recording media. To manufacture such discrete track media, the patterns of a magnetic layer should desirably be formed by an imprinting method using a stamper. In this case, if patterns of the magnetic layer corresponding to signals for the servo zone as well as the patterns of recording tracks are formed by using the imprinting method, it is possible to eliminate the need for a servo track write process, leading to reduction in costs.
A document refers to a position detection mark (an address section) in the servo zone Sz in a discrete track media (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2004-110896). However, the prior art does not consider adverse effects of fine configuration of the position detection mark (the address section) on signal quality.
The present inventors have studied a discrete track media for the quality of address signals obtained from the servo zones. As a result, they have found that, in some cases, quality of the address signals is made insufficient with a high noise level. A probable cause is that, in a case where two magnetic patterns used as address bits on servo zones corresponding to two adjacent recording tracks are arranged so that one corner of one magnetic pattern is almost in point-contact with one corner of the other magnetic pattern, magnetic fluxes are concentrated on the corners of the magnetic patterns. The concentration of the magnetic fluxes may increase a leakage magnetic field, which in turn may increase noise. Further, when the corners of the two magnetic patterns used as address bits are joined together, magnetic signals would be broadened. This makes it difficult to distinguish the two magnetic patterns.